Why Do I Need an iPad?

Apple’s iPad first surged onto the market in early 2010 to thunderous praise and applause. However, due to the fact that it reached critical acclaim so quickly in its lifespan, it can be easy to overlook the device as nothing more than a passing fad. You may be asking yourself, “What can I do on an iPad that I can’t already do on a laptop or desktop?” The answers are many, and may surprise you.

If you’re a reader, you need an iPad. The iTunes iBook Store offers hundreds of thousands of books available for purchase with the tap of a button. You can purchase books via a credit or debit card tied to your iTunes account, the same way you can purchase movies, music and television shows. Even the smallest available iPad, at 32 gigabytes of storage, has enough space to hold even the largest book collections. If you’ve purchased books using competing services like Amazon’s Kindle program or Barnes and Noble’s Nook service, these books are also readable on your iPad via dedicated applications available for free. The iPad is also the perfect reader for other types of print media, like comic books and magazines.

If you’re interested in news and politics, you need an iPad. Nearly every news service you can think of, from CNN to Fox News to the Huffington Post and everything in between, offers iPad applications that reformat their content to take advantage of the device’s touch screen interface. You can also set up push notifications to alert you of news as it breaks at a moment’s notice. If a big news story hits, you don’t even have to open an application. A message will appear right on your iPad’s home screen.

If you’re a mobile gamer, you need an iPad. With games like Angry Birds, Words with Friends and even previous console-only games like Madden Football, the iPad has quickly established itself as one of the premiere mobile gaming platforms on the market. All games are available via digital distribution in the form of applications. No longer do you have to carry around game discs like you do on other handheld consoles. You can purchase games (or download free ones) from wherever your iPad has Wi-Fi connectivity.

If you want to enjoy movies and TV shows on the go, you need an iPad. The iPad’s size and hard drive space make it optimal for enjoying your favorite movies and television programs on the go. Hundreds of thousands of movies, including popular titles fresh out of theaters, are available for a fee from the iTunes Store. You can rent these movies and television shows for a small fee, or download a copy to own for a slightly larger one. Movies and television shows can be managed and synced to your device through iTunes in the same process you would use for music purchases.

If you run a business or are self-employed, you need an iPad. The iPad makes it incredibly easy to manage everything from your finances to the actual work you’re doing. If you need to be able to take credit card payments from customers on the go, you can do so using an application on your iPad. If you need a small but effective word processor to carry with you everywhere you travel, the iPad can accomplish this using any one of a number of dedicated applications. For small business owners and the self-employed, the iPad is like carrying an assistant, accountant and employee around with you on a device that can fit in your backpack.